Tag: Updates

Our last Union Update for May not only brings you all the information you could ask for regarding next week’s Game Update 3, but also news on our next live stream. Finally, the Anno 1800 team is looking for some new blood, so let’s get right to it!

As you saw when we announced our Season Pass, we have some big plans for Anno 1800. To realize all of them, we are currently looking for some reinforcements to join our industrial revolution. So if you have experience working in game development and would like to help us shape the future of Anno, you should definitely check out our career portal!

And right before the content launches, we will have another Community Corner Live-Stream with our Community Developer Bastian. Tun in next Tuesday June 4th to have a closer look on the the Anarchist’s island while Basti answers your questions about the DLC and other community hot topics.

Game Update 3
adds support for The Anarchist character and associated content for all owners
of the Digital Deluxe and Pioneers Editions. Owners of the Standard Edition can
buy The Anarchist as part of the Digital Deluxe Edition Upgrade.

The first expedition event from our Anno Union contest and vote, “The Great Sickness”, is now in the game and awaits intrepid explorers.

We have reworked interface elements for the World Fair Monument, the Court of Justice and the Excavation Site. These new menus will give players better readability.

You can now
find new items for purchase at the harbors of Eli Bleakworth, Archibald Blake
and Carl Leonard von Malching

The “Anno Union Emblem” company logo is now available for all users and can be claimed from the Club Rewards section on Uplay. Go Anno Union!

Balancing and Improvements

Improved trade routes to prevent
sudden player bankruptcy

Previously,
it was possible for trade to spend more money than the player currently had in
their

balance, which could lead to an unexpected and sudden bankruptcy. During our investigations, we noticed that this was a reason for players suddenly losing a game without fully understanding why.

Rebalanced the way power plants handle
workforce.

They
will now shut down if they have less than 50% of the required workforce
(previously this could happen with any loss of workforce).

Ship improvements

Improved
the behavior of ship illnesses that could easily go out of control.
We sent out a group of expert physicians to counter the ongoing spreading of
the plague on your ships. Ships can only contract or spread the illness to a
harbor and will not be able to infect other ships anymore. This should put an
end to the ongoing epidemics, which could be a problem for late game empires
with lots of ships and trade routes.

Improved
the Military AI behavior. Now, the behavior should be more natural and ships
should not flee without reason.

Improved
selection when double clicking on a ship with the intention of selecting all
ships of this type.

Added
the Oil tanker to the list of ships that Archibald Blake sells on his island.

In some combinations, it was possible to exploit the trade deals with NPC’s to max out their reputation in a short amount of time without much of an investment. We rebalanced the reputation gain for trading to make it more reasonable.

You
created stunning metropolises and the word about your utopian island paradise
is spreading through the world of Anno. We rebalanced the attractiveness
requirements for rare visitors to arrive at your tourist harbor earlier. Previously,
legendary visitors would not set their foot into your city before you reach a minimum
attractiveness of 5000 and with Update 3, you will be able to get legendary
visitor items with a rating of 1750. Further balancing changed the attractiveness
rating for rare visitors to 450 and a chance for epic visitors to 1000. This
will bring more value to the tourist feature while also providing you with more
freedom to customize your playstyle thanks to the items. We realized that due to
the high requirements, some legendary items have rarely or never been found by players.
That means that the powerful Pyphorian Naval Architects, which enable you to build
their infamous steam ships, will finally find their way on your island.

In
the same wake, we changed the item pool of Third Party trader Eli Bleakworth.
He will not only offer a bigger pool of specialists, some of the convicts,
which had been locked away in dark and lonely detention cells (such as poor
Keralis), will now appear more frequently.

User interface and experience
improvements

Improved the behavior of the music when a large-scale incident occurs. From now on, the dramatic music should be a bit less prominent to your ears and nerves.

Reduced the frequency of notifications tied to dropping workforce on an island.

Reduced the frequency of notifications tied to hostile island takeovers.

Hitting the “Escape” key will now close the Transfer Goods Menu.

Added various extra information and new tips on game loading screens for users to discover.

Improved the loading times on many interface graphics.

Improved readability in the German version of the “Baptism of Fire” expedition event.

Improved some of the UI elements displayed in the Newspaper Archive.

Aligned the consistency and style of several interface icons

Improved the transition between expedition menu and gameplay screens.

Improved readability and tool tips for the Trade menu.

Improved the way character`s emotions are visible while in the Diplomacy menu during an audio line delivery. Animations should now be more consistent with the audio lines.

Improved the visibility of the visitor’s dialogue in the Monument menu during a Monument event.

Removed automatically generated profiles, which could contain unsupported special characters in their names.

BUGFIXES

Stability fixes improvements

Fixed
stability issues in multiplayer where match setup with two or three players
could lead to an infinite loading screen.

Fixed
stability issues where the creation of several new games in rapid succession
could lead to a crash.

Fixed
an issue where the game could crash if certain shortcuts were spammed while in
the save game name dialogue.

Campaign and quest bug fixes

Fixed an issue in campaign where premature destruction of the trading post on Prosperity could block completion of the “Prosperity for all” quest.

Fixed an issue in the campaign where upgrading some quest-critical buildings could break quests.

Fixed an issue where Refugee’s campaign quests could not be completed if ship with refugees equipped were transferred between sessions.

General Bug fixes

Fixed an issue with newspapers mistakenly displaying articles about missing goods that were actually being provided. This could happen due to residence buildings that do not need the respective goods mistakenly being considered as not being satisfied. The improved logic for this will now only take buildings that actually need the goods into consideration. No power to fake news!

Fixed an issue where moving around harbor buildings during an attack could lead to military AI units being stuck.

Fixed an issue where using invalid characters in editable fields could break the associated save file.

Fixed an issue where changing the graphics settings for “Feedback Quality” would not be properly applied.

Fixed an issue with the “Party like it’s 1851” and “Annoholic” Club Challenges not properly unlocking once all requirements are met.

Fixed the achievement “Gold Digger”, which previously unlocked for the player as soon as any session participant reached 100.000 coins.

Fixed potential issues with moving around and then upgrading blueprints of harbor buildings.

Fixed an issue where the monument would sometimes show the tool tips for the previous phases.

Fixed an issue with invalid items and special visitors.

Fixed a shortcut key, which would mistakenly permit the player to place an Old World warehouse in the New World region.

Fixed an issue where the Military AI would not realize that a hostile takeover has occurred, which would lead to a never-ending state of war.

Fixed an issue with the logistic system where available storage space was sometimes not fully utilized.

Fixed an issue where during an escort ship quest the ship following the intended target would move at a lower speed than intended.

Fixed an issue with the Old Bell item that would not work on the Gold Ore Mine in the New World.

Fixed onscreen notification when user sells goods via passive trade.

Fixed a problem where Jean La Fortune from The New World session was shown in the Diplomacy Menu before The New World session has been discovered.

Fixed an issue where newspaper article tool tips would not display properly.

Fixed an issue where disabling the right-click menu in the options could be reset after restarting the game.

Fixed an issue where the wrong info layer would show on top the Charcoal Kiln if it was placed in blueprint mode.

Fixed an issue where moving a Commuter’s Pier that was not connected to a street would activate the transfer.

Fixed an issue where the Oil could not be manually transferred to the Oil tanker via Trade Menu.

Fixed an issue where item effects would not disappear if the associated building was destroyed.

Fixed the “Banker” item that would not increase the range of the Bank. To mitigate this issue, the effect has been removed and changed to target residence buildings.

Fixed an issue with pirates remaining in the game after being defeated. Sorry guys, you are out.

Fixed an issue with ships being erroneously shown on the wrong trade routes in the menu.

Fixed an issue with ships being displayed in the trade routes menu after being sold.

One of the most frequently asked questions over the past weeks and months has been what kind of post-launch content and support players could expect from Anno 1800. Today, we are happy to answer some of those questions, as we announce our Season Pass, which consists of three DLCs (which will also be available separately) that we plan to release throughout 2019. We are also giving you a first glimpse at our free content plans, and detail how you can upgrade your standard edition of the game to the Digital Deluxe Edition to secure the Anarchist character that we will release in the coming months.

The 1800 Season Pass is here

Let’s start with the biggest news: We are announcing the Anno 1800 Season Pass, which will give players access to three big content drops that we will be releasing throughout the year.

Our goal with these DLCs is to offer a variety of content that expands on all the new features and systems of Anno 1800. This includes some new additions that the community has been asking for or speculating about. So let us a first teasing look at what to expect when you buy the Season Pass.

DLC 1: Sunken Treasures

Expand your island with a new European session and large continental island, as you join an eccentric inventor and his diving bell on a treasure hunt.

DLC 2: Botanica

Grow your city’s attractiveness to new heights with a modular Botanical Garden, allowing you to earn new items and rewards as you draw the tourist masses to your floral masterpiece. Alternatively, construct the new Musical Pavilion and enjoy beloved tracks from previous Anno games inside your city.

DLC 3: The Passage

The Passage will take you on a new adventure to the Arctic Circle as you explore the legendary Northwest Passage. To succeed in this merciless climate, you will need to construct an arctic outpost and master all-new production chains and goods.

Cosmetic Content (available on Day 1)

Buyers of the Season Pass will also immediately receive three cosmetic customization items that you can use to customize your game profile for multiplayer: the prisoner portrait, and two exclusive company logos (“Promethean Fire” and “Eagle Crest”).

The Anno 1800 Season Pass is now available for digital purchase and is priced at 24,99$/€.

Upgrade your game to Digital Deluxe and secure the upcoming Anarchist character

Another question that has frequently popped up is how players who have bought the standard edition of Anno 1800 could get access to the Anarchist character when it is released. This is now possible, thanks to our Digital Deluxe Edition upgrade, which you can now buy to upgrade your version of the game.

Doing so unlocks fours things for you:

Access to the Anarchist character (once he releases in the future)

4 unique company logos you can use to customize your profile (now available)

A digital version of our beautiful artbook (now available)

A digital selection of music from Anno 1800’s orchestral soundtrack (now available)

Also, to avoid any confusion: The Anarchist is only available as part of the Digital Deluxe Edition, the Digital Deluxe Edition Upgrade and the Pioneers Edition. It is not part of the Season Pass (see above for details on what is included in the Season Pass).

So, who is the Anarchist, exactly?

“A self-proclaimed anarchist, Dr. Mercier has created a radical new society free of the state. Formerly champion of a union of student dentists, Mercier was asked by the Queen to use his popular appeal to pacify increasing threats of revolution in her territories. Instead Mercier sided with the protesters, declaring the people’s complete independence from crown authority.”

In game terms, the Anarchist is a new NPC opponent you can select to play against, including his own unique set of quests and rewards for the player to tackle. And while we don’t want to spoil too much, we can safely say that he will bring a very flavorful and unique playstyle to the game, with his own set of behavioral rules that mirror his views on politics and society.

Consider yourselves warned…

Did someone say Free Content?

As you can see from the above, we do have some big plans to support Anno 1800 and to make sure it stays exciting and fresh for our Annoholics. To this end, we are also planning to deliver regular Game Updates that will be free for all players of Anno 1800. Those will not only include bug fixes and ongoing balancing, but will also include all-new game content- some of which is a direct result of your feedback here on the Anno Union. So let’s see what’s in store (Note: We can’t promise any dates when this content will hit, so the below order does not necessarily reflect how it will be released).

Statistics Building

One request we have seen from many of the more experienced Anno players that love to go all in on the min-maxing is to have more information about their production chains and their output available. To provide you this information, we will be introducing a new statistics building in the future.

Co-Op Mode

You asked for it, and we listened: Anno 1800 will receive a free co-op mode in a future update, allowing you to team up with your friends to take shared control of a single empire as it evolves throughout the industrial revolution

Community Challenges

We will be giving the Anno Community regular challenges that will require all of you to come together to reach a shared goal. Doing so will unlock new cosmetic customization options like company icons or even skins for all participants. Go Anno union!

And that’s it for today! We know that you are all busy enjoying Anno 1800 as it currently stands, but we hope you enjoyed this first glimpse of what we have planned for you in the future.